Illinois football made this game a little more interesting than it needed to be, but we secured the nice win regardless.
It was a one-score game for much of the first half, as the Illini needed a Hail Mary to go up eight points entering halftime. A big second half put away UAB up by a score of 42-23.
Bret Bielema took to the mic after the contest in his weekly post-game press conference. He let Illinois fans know where his mind was after the victory.
Here are five interesting Bret Bielema quotes from the Illinois football win over UAB
- “He (Ryder Burton) escaped up the middle on some pass rush stuff.”
This was definitely noticeable in the game on Thursday night. I have said it a million times, but the middle of the defense was so soft. I am surprised that UAB went away from the run so much.
Ryder Burton finished the game with 38 yards on the ground. That was by far his career high, as he had previously had a high of six rushing yards in a game. I can’t imagine what a good running quarterback would do against that Illinois soft center.
- “I think we had 22 offensive plays in the first half compared to 50 on defense, so I knew they had the time of possession.”
This type of imbalance will do two things in the future. One, it will kill Illinois’ defense. We can’t have our defense out there that often and still expect to not give up points.
The second thing is that it will usually mean that Illinois isn’t moving the ball. After the first two drives of the game, the Illinois offense stalled out. That is what made UAB come close to us in the first half. Letting Katin Houser fling the ball around will be the solution to this imbalance.
- “We had the majority of our players in there through three and a half quarters, and I think that is a really good thing.”
This is a double-edged sword. Illinois did have the starters in for nearly 75% of the game, but that was due to us allowing the Blazers to hang around in this contest.
I will say, I do like that our starters got that much action. It is that much more rust knocked off and chemistry built. Hopefully, gelling longer will help us put away Duke early.
- “I am very glad we brought in a guy at every level from that system (3-3-5 defense). They were talking really good on the headset. I think they will make a lot of adjustments.”
I kind of touched on this in the first quote. Illinois’ defense was Charmin in the middle. So, so soft. We can’t have that moving forward.
Bielema sees that there were issues in the Illini defense. He isn’t just burying his head. Beyond this quote, he also mentions that from game one to game two is when defenses make the biggest jump. We have Duke in game two, so we will need that jump.
- “We had 12,000 students, which you know, I think when I first came here, I think we had about 2,000-3,000.”
You have to give credit where credit is due. Illinois’ fanbase was so down, and the student section was kind of embarrassing before Bielema took over the program.
The only time I remember the student section being full was at the start of the Lovie Smith era when Illinois played North Carolina. We got cooked that day, and that was the end of that. Bielema has rejuvenated the Orange and Blue, and it is noticeable when the student section is full against a non-conference cupcake.
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